Donor Code of Conduct facts and figures

The Rogare survey is ongoing. Should you wish to participate – whether or not you have experienced inappropriate behaviour from donors that made you feel unsafe – you can do so here. 

• 76% of fundraisers have experienced sexual harassment at least once in their careers. Link to Speaking Truth to Power in Fundraising: A Toolkit  
• 42% of fundraisers have experienced sexual harassment with the last two years.  
• 24% of fundraisers who had experienced sexual harassment said it was by an external stakeholder, such as a donor.  
• However, when the Chronicle of Philanthropy in the USA conducted a survey, 65% of fundraisers said a donor was responsible at least once.  

In conjunction with the Chartered Institute, Rogare is running an ongoing survey to allow fundraisers to report and describe any forms of inappropriate behaviour by donors (it is important we collect responses from people who have never encountered any inappropriate behaviour). 

This data only tells us something about the people who have taken part in the survey, rather than the sector in its entirety. Nonetheless, the findings are very insightful. 

We have had 212 respondents to the survey. Of these: 

• 109 (51%) reported having experienced behaviour by a donor that made them feel physically or mentally unsafe. Ninety-six of these completed further questions about their experiences. 

• 76 (36%) said it had never happened to them, but they knew of others it had happened to. 

• 27 (13%) said that not only had it not happened to them, but they were not aware of others experiencing inappropriate behaviour. 

The majority of respondents who reported behaviour that made the feel unsafe were women. Only 86 participants completed the demographic data section, but of these, 78 were women, which accounts for 91% (and at least 71% of the 109 who reported inappropriate behaviour). Only six of this group of respondents were male.  

The following stats relate to the 96 fundraisers (78 female, 6 male, 1 ‘do not wish to say’, 11 unknown gender) who completed further questions about the inappropriate behaviour by donors they had experienced (figure in brackets refer to numbers for female fundraisers – though this is likely to be higher if we assume most of the unknown gender are women). Please note respondents were able to select more than one option for this question. 

• 82% (88% for women) had experienced it more than once 

• 7% (8) only experienced inappropriate behaviour once, but it was enough to make them feel very unsafe 

• 8% (8) have felt seriously unsafe on more than one occasion 

• 47% (53) see it as something that happens regularly enough that they have to be ready for it 

• 27% (24) encountered it more than once but it didn’t make them feel concerned. 

The main type of inappropriate behaviour reported by fundraisers in our survey was sexually inappropriate behaviour, which 84% (80 respondents) said they had experienced. This broke down as:  

• Sexual innuendo, banter or unwanted comments (90% of the 80 respondents who had experienced sexually inappropriate behaviour) 

• Inappropriate psychical contact (55%) 

• An improper proposition (39%) 

• One respondent reported a sexual assault, which we are sure everyone will agree, is one too many. 

Nearly half of all respondents also said they’d been subject to unwanted physical contact (not in a sexually inappropriate way), and a third had received inappropriate comments about their sex, gender or gender identity. Similar comments about race or a disability were in low single figures, but there is a good chance this reflects low levels of respondents with these protected characteristics. 

Also, low numbers, but worrying, was that 25% of fundraisers reported verbal bullying by donors, three reported physical bullying and one a physical assault. 

We also asked if fundraisers had experienced donors making disparaging comments about their ability as a fundraiser. Four out of 10 said they had, and 16% reported a donor approaching their managers in a way that would impact their role (such as by asking not to have contact with the fundraiser anymore). 

Respondents to our survey report inappropriate behaviour from all types of donors. As might be expected, donors in one-to-one interactions were most regularly inappropriate (because there is more opportunity for this to happen). 

67% of respondents reported inappropriate behaviour from major donors (those who can give substantial gifts) and 20% had experienced it from leadership or elite philanthropists (those who can make gifts so big they have the potential to transform a charity). Regarding sexually inappropriate behaviour, the figures are 52% for major donors and 12% for elite philanthropists. 

But respondents reported some form of inappropriate behaviour from all types of donors to a lesser or greater degree, including: 

• Event participants – 33% (23% for sexually inappropriate behaviour) 

• Individual donors – 29% (16%) 

• People at companies – 22% (25%) 

• Members of the public (e.g. whom you might encounter while doing F2F) – 18% (11%) 

• Friend groups – 15% (5%). 

Such behaviour was also reported from, albeit in low numbers, legacy/bequest donors, trusts/foundations, statutory bodies and through digital platforms. 

Even though they are not always donors, board members were included as a response option. 25% of respondents report inappropriate behaviour from board members; this figure being 14% for sexually-inappropriate behaviour. 

We also asked fundraisers to identify the type of donor that was responsible for making them feel the most unsafe. Perhaps not surprisingly, by far the highest response, at 30%, was major donors. Next highest was event participants at 14%. 

That respondents to the survey consistently report inappropriate behaviour that made them feel unsafe from event participants perhaps points to a problem that the fundraising profession has previously underestimated.